Scott Jameson Jones (born 23 May 1954) is an American

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Global Methodist Church The Global Methodist Church (GM Church, or GMC) is a Methodism, Methodist denomination within Protestant Christianity subscribing to views that were propounded by the conservative Confessing Movement. The Christian denomination, denomination is ...

and former bishop of the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...

, elected in 2004, serving until his retirement and subsequent resignation from the episcopal office and transfer to the GMC in 2023.

Early life, education and family

He was born in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

and raised in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

and

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. Jones' younger brother, L. Gregory Jones, is also a theologian and serves as president of Belmont University. He met his wife, Mary Lou Reece, while a student at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

, and they were married 18 August 1979. She is the president of Reece Construction Company, with offices in

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1858 ...

and

Prosper, Texas Prosper is a suburb in Collin and Denton counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Prosper is located within the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As of the 2010 census, its population was 9,423. As of 2023, the population was 37,746. History The first set ...

. The couple has three children and five grandchildren. Jones earned a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree in philosophy at the University of Kansas (1977 with highest honors). He is a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

. He earned an

M.Th. Master of Theology (, abbreviated ThM, MTh or MTheol, or ''Sacrae Theologiae Magister''; abbreviated STM) is a post-graduate degree offered by universities, divinity schools, and seminaries. It can serve as a transition degree for entrance into a ...

degree at

Perkins School of Theology Perkins School of Theology is one of Southern Methodist University's three original schools and is located in Dallas, Texas. The theology school was renamed in 1945 to honor benefactors Joe J. and Lois Craddock Perkins of Wichita Falls, Texas. De ...

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

(1981 with high honors). Jones's

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

is also from Southern Methodist University, which he earned in 1992 in

religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

Theology

Jones holds to a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

Arminian Arminianism is a movement of Protestantism initiated in the early 17th century, based on the Christian theology, theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic supporters known as Remo ...

soteriology.

Episcopal ministry

Jones was endorsed for election to the Episcopacy by the North Texas Conference Delegation to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference and was elected in July 2004. He was assigned to the Kansas Episcopal Area, with offices in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...

. Jones took over the new Great Plains Conference, which was formed in 2014 by combining the former Kansas East, Kansas West and Nebraska United Methodist conferences. In 2016 he was assigned to the Texas Annual Conference (Houston Area) where he served until January 2023. In January 2023 Scott Jones resigned as a Bishop of the UMC and withdrew his conference membership to unite with The Global Methodist Church.

Selected writings

*''John Wesley's Conception and Use of Scripture,'' Nashville, Kingswood Books/Abingdon, 1995. *''Wesley and the Quadrilateral: Renewing the Conversation'' (with S. Gunter, T. Campbell, R. Miles and R. Maddox), Nashville, Abingdon, 1997. *''United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center,'' Nashville, Abingdon, 2002. *''The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor: A Theology of Witness and Discipleship,'' Nashville, Abingdon, 2003. *''The Wesleyan Way, Nashville,'' Abingdon, 2013. *''Ask: Faith Questions in a Skeptical Age'' (with Arthur D. Jones), Nashville, Abingdon, 2015. *''Scripture and the Wesleyan Way'' (with Arthur D. Jones), Nashville, Abingdon, 2018.

References

Citations

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Scott J. 1954 births 20th-century American theologians 20th-century Methodist ministers 21st-century Methodist ministers American religion academics American United Methodist bishops Arminian ministers Arminian theologians Duke Divinity School alumni Global Methodist Church Living people Methodist theologians Southern Methodist University alumni